The screen flickers blue in the dark of my room A vintage noir script chasing away the gloom I’m tracing the vowels in a mid-Atlantic drawl Watching the shadows lean hard against the wall They speak in the syntax of a life I’ve never known Gathering the fragments and making them my own Oh, it’s the celluloid classroom, flickering bright Grammar in the shadows of a velvet night Every line I borrow, every word I steal Makes the paper fiction feel a little more real Falling for the cadence, learning how to sway Watching films to find the right words to say Subtitles fading like a ghost on the glass I’m waiting for the punchline, waiting for the pass New York street talk mixed with a London street freeze Learning how to argue, how to beg, how to please No dusty textbook ever captured the tone Of a heart breaking open on a payphone alone It’s not just the vocabulary in the frame It’s the breath before the answer, the way they hide the shame If you listen to the silence between the spoken part You’ll find the beating rhythm of a second language heart Oh, it’s the celluloid classroom, flickering bright Grammar in the shadows of a velvet night Every line I borrow, every word I steal Makes the paper fiction feel a little more real Falling for the cadence, learning how to sway Watching films to find the right words to say The credits roll slowly, gold on the black I’m speaking fluent longing, never looking back Just one more frame Just one more sound Lost in the language that I finally found